We all know sharing equals caring, but apparently sharing also equals a whole bunch of cash for those involved, as well. We’ve touched on the vast opportunity of heavy equipment sharing in the construction industry a lot, recently, with the rate equipment rentals on the rise and the launch of EquipmentShare, a peer-to-peer equipment rental company recently entering the market. Now there’s another peer-to-peer equipment sharing company making news and it’s got a heavy hitter backing it financially.

Currently Yard Club only operates and rents out of San Francisco, but with Caterpillars backing, their plan is to rapidly expand their concept to other parts of the country.

For renters, Yard Club promises to only rent high quality machinery that has been thoroughly inspected, while also offering the benefit of lower costs. All available machinery can be browsed through right on their apps that are available on both Android and Apple devices.

The owners of the equipment are able to set their own rental prices and can rest easy knowing that Yard Club verifies that the renter has insurance and they are protected by a Master Rental Agreement. Both the owner and contractor are held to the Yard Club Code and violators can have their access removed. Around 20% of the full rental cost does go back to Yard Club as their commission.

In what has become a popular trend for construction technology leaders, Procore recently held their yearly Groundbreak construction technology conference in Austin, TX from November 13-15. These yearly conference allow companies to reach a core of their user base and announce their past and future enhancements, in addition to performing hands-on training sessions with product experts. Construction Junkie was in attendance for this year’s Gorundbreak and we’ve got you covered with all the details.

This week, Procore held their annual construction technology conference called Groundbreak in Austin, TX. Through a series of keynote speeches and breakout sessions, Procore announced their latest releases and plans for the future. I was in attendance this week and I’ll have a full recap of the event coming soon. One of the company’s biggest announcements at this year’s Groundbreak was the release of a new product called Design Coordination, for Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) teams.

CAT phones has made our headlines in recent years by matching their rugged design with a suite of features that no other phone can match, like the built-in thermal imaging, laser measure, and humidity and VOC sensors that the Cat S61 has. Those past phones have been unlocked and compatible with certain networks of the user’s choosing, but their latest release is starting out only available on the Sprint Network.

It’s been a long time coming, but the world’s first 3D printed steel bridge has passed all of its required testing and is ready to be installed. But, before it gets to its final home, it will go on a short publicity tour.

Tracking your construction project’s submittals and their approval status can be a tedious and frustrating process, but thankfully several project management applications are helping solve that issue with technology. At the beginning of this year, PlanGrid announced the release of an automatic submittal log creator tool, which scans through your project’s specification book and creates a trackable log of each submittal. The company has recently added several new features to make the Submittal platform, which allows users to manipulate the submittal log, even more useful.

I’ve mentioned this several times before, but the single greatest thing technology companies can do for the construction industry is to allow cross-platform integration. That’s essentially what construction is at its core, anyway, a bunch of different entities working together for a common goal. Autodesk’s BIM 360, which already integrates 60+ different softwares into its platform, has recently added NoteVault to its list.

When we’ve talked about construction robotics in the past, it’s mostly been about really large machines working on exterior structures, like this brick-laying robot, or this self-driving track loader. A technology institute in Japan is busy working towards bringing robotics to the interior finish side of the construction world with the development of a drywall installing robot.

PlanGrid users may have noticed, or been frustrated with that fact, that some features that are available on the program’s Android and iOS apps are not available on the Windows app. Windows’ Surface tablets have become a popular option for construction teams in recent years, so those users will be happy to hear that the Field Reports function is now available on PlanGrid for Windows.

We’ve heard a lot of promising developments on construction technologies in the past few years, many of which will not only make the industry more efficient, but create a much higher quality product. Testing this technology inside of a controlled facility, however, doesn’t quite paint an entire picture for how the product will perform on a constantly evolving jobsite.

[sponsored] Construction daily reports are necessary for project management and tracking. The need to keep accurate and complete reports has caused the industry to evolve their process from pen and paper to spreadsheet software and now into simple to use mobile apps and software. This has greatly improved the way that daily reports are created, stored, and shared.

Dubai has been on the bleeding edge of pushing the boundaries of construction for over a decade. The famous Burj Khalifa, the current World’s Tallest Building, but the United Arab Emirates on the map. Since then, the country has poured money and resources into the construction industry and have sets their sights on a new challenge: 3D construction printing.

Just over a year ago, DeWalt announced that it was expanding its reach in construction technology with the release of Construction Site WiFi System. As mobile applications for construction tasks, like daily reporting and plan review, become more and more popular, it’s becoming increasingly important for contractors to ensure there is adequate internet connection on the jobsite. Managing that connection on an often changing construction site can prove to be a bit of a challenge.

Procore, one of the country’s most popular construction project management software, has officially launched the first product in their newest platform: Field Productivity. The newest platform joins Procore’s 3 other existing platforms: Project Management, Quality & Safety, and Construction Financials.

Every year, construction technology company JBKnowledge administers one of the largest and most comprehensive construction technology reports in the country. After the surveys are completed by thousands of construction companies across the country, the data is compiled into an annual report, which identifies important industry trends. You can find the results of the 2016 survey here and the 2017 survey here.

Picture documentation is arguably one of the most important aspects of a construction project. They can help communicate a story, catch mistakes, and assist in warranty calls. In the past, pictures only told part of the story, because they were two dimensional and often impossible to place where they were taken on the site. Now, 360 degree photos are becoming the norm and pictures are becoming an even more powerful tool.

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